Defining "Service"

My name is Alec Marsy, I’m a second-year AmeriCorps member serving at Goodwill of Greater Grand Rapids. I really love this organization! Goodwill has a workforce development program that helps people with barriers to employment, such as mental or physical disabilities, criminal history, or socio-economic factors, create a life of self-governance through gainful employment. It puts the power over one’s life back into the hands of the individual.

My service this year is very different from last year, which has gotten me thinking about service a lot lately. What does it really mean to “serve” your community, to “serve” your country? From my experiences over the past two years, I’ve come to the conclusion that service is more of a feeling than an action. It’s something that has to be experienced before it can be truly understood. I could never fully understand what service means to an individual in the military, and I think it would be difficult for them to understand what my service has meant to me.

What’s even more surprising is how different service can feel depending on those whom you serve. Last year, I served at a high school in the Upper Peninsula where I ran a credit recovery room. Students could come to retake classes online that they had failed in the classroom. Working with teenagers could be very frustrating at times, with some of the students exuding a sense of entitlement. It was as though my AmeriCorps service in their school – providing mentoring, tutoring and guidance – was just a given; that it didn’t depend on a large commitment, not only from myself, but from the school and program through which I served. I realize part of that can be attributed to immaturity and a lack of understanding of my role in the school, but it did make my AmeriCorps service challenging.

This year, serving at Goodwill as a GED tutor, has a different feel than my service last year. It might be because the participants I tutor are much more appreciative, much more open to suggestions than the high school students I worked with last year. Hearing the words “thank you,” or “I appreciate the help” makes serving that much more rewarding. But because my experience last year was a bigger struggle, does that make the service more meaningful? Or does it simply imply that, whether you’re on active duty in Afghanistan, a mechanic at Fort Leavenworth, or even a GED tutor in Grand Rapids, Michigan, service is about the people you affect, the lives you change, and the experiences you have while doing it all?

Service isn't qualified by the amount of adversity you experience, or by the risks you take. I feel as though service is qualified much more simply than that: service in the name of service. Not because we want glory, certainly not because we want to be rich, but because we saw a need in our community and chose to actively participate in its relief. And this is the task of all people, not just AmeriCorps members. There may not be a "thank you" at every turn, but take in every ounce of appreciation you receive as you pass through your year of service. It's rarer, and far more precious than you think.